Assessing possible locations for a battery plant is one element of the comprehensive work ongoing by Panasonic, Equinor and Hydro to explore the potential for a sustainable and profitable European battery business located in Norway.

Other aspects, including an assessment of the market for lithium-ion batteries in Europe, market dynamics and competitive framework conditions that we are jointly assessing will also be needed for this to succeed. Preliminary findings are expected around mid-2021 and these will inform subsequent decisions by the partnership.

Considerable work was put in by many local communities to develop good site proposals and they showed a willingness to make local accommodations as host of a possible battery plant. The project has assessed 82 proposals covering more than 100 different site locations from all parts of Norway.

After a systematic run-through of all submitted proposals, the initial assessment has been completed and the project has a list of some 20 proposed site locations that will be evaluated further.

All applicants have now received feedback on the outcome of this assessment.

It is up to each individual applicant whether they would like to make their proposal known. The companies will not announce or make any public comments about individual proposals or publish an overview of proposals that have been assessed or which ones are now being evaluated further.